Mobile Home Fire in East Mesa Kills 32 Dogs

Thirty-two dogs were killed in an East Mesa mobile home fire on Tuesday, the East Valley Tribune reports today, including chows, Chihuahuas, English bulldogs and Labradors. We don't know about you, but the first question that came to our mind when we saw this was, "What the hell are 32...

By Ray Stern

April 3, 2009

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Thirty-two dogs were killed in an East Mesa mobile home fire on Tuesday, the East Valley Tribune reports today, including chows, Chihuahuas, English bulldogs and Labradors.

We don't know about you, but the first question that came to our mind when we saw this was, "What the hell are 32 dogs doing in a mobile home?"

It's worse than that, even. The home was just a single-wide. And, writes reporter Gary Grado, the poor puppies had been kept in a 10'-by-12' penned area of the mobile home. Neighbors have complained for years about the noise and smell.

Investigators call the fire suspicious.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.